


Making Friends

by otakuwriter



Series: Lane Vermell [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Feelings, Friendship, Gen, Gender Non-Conforming Character, Getting to Know Each Other, Hurt/Comfort, Lane Vermell's Background, Mention of eating disorder, Misgendering, Original Character - Freeform, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, mentions of self harm, steven doing his best, teenager things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-12 01:21:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19937677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/otakuwriter/pseuds/otakuwriter
Summary: Lane finally meets the famous Steven Universe while they're in the middle of their shift. Our genderfluid character gets the chance to make friends with someone aside from their co-workers.  Nothing like spilling your guts to a newly formed friend.





	Making Friends

Lane was working their first shift at the Big Donut without the help of their coworkers today. The teen looked to the door then back to their chest with a name tag that read their deadname, “Freja.” Lane shuddered at the memories associated with that name, They hated their birth name with a burning passion. It hurt them to know that this was the name that the customers would see, that their coworkers would see. 

Lane is snapped out of their mind’s downward spiral with the chime of the door opening. The smaller humanoid looked towards the door to see a short boy wearing a pink shirt with an enormous yellow star in the middle. “Welcome to the Big Donut! What can I get you today?” Their voice trailed off waiting for the younger looking boy to respond. 

Steven looked over to the voice that seemed almost disembodied, he walked toward the counter, “You aren’t Lars, or Sadie. Who are you?”

Lane rolled their eyes, “Lane, I work here, I'm usually in the back. Now what kind of donut can I get you?”

“But your tag doesn’t say Lane, it says Free-yah.” Steven squinted at the tag as he read.

Lane’s body went rigid, “My name is LANE, please call me Lane.” They tried to change the subject, “We have Bavarian cream filled donuts, if you’d like to try that?”

The younger looking boy’s eyes grew wide, “Wait, what’s your favorite donut, Lane?” He wanted to correct the error he made. 

Lane sighed and answered, “Blueberry cake donuts with vanilla glaze.”

The boy jumped up at the sound of the donut Lane just mentioned, “If you have any of those, I'd like to try it. Oh and my name’s Steven! It’s nice to meet you.” He beamed with a thousand watt smile.

Lane chuckled softly, “S’ok, and you’re in luck Steven, I just made a fresh batch!” The genderfluid teen grabbed a piece of parchment paper from the box in front of the donut case reaching in snagging a blueberry cake donut with vanilla glaze. They placed the confection in one of the store’s brown paper bags, “Here you go, enjoy!” Lane smiled as they stood on tiptoe to pass Steven his donut. 

Steven gleefully took the bag leaving the payment on the counter, “I’ll see you tomorrow Lane!” He exclaimed as he left the store.

Lane waved as the door closed, maybe today would be ok, especially if all of the customers today were as enthusiastic as Steven.

Two weeks have passed by and Lane was working the morning shift alone again, but now they have the correct name tag, black ink on a metal plate, letters spelled out Lane. By this point they knew that Steven came in everyday around the same time for a donut, his usual is a yeast donut with strawberry icing and rainbow sprinkles. Lane had decided since it was going to be in the high eighties to low nineties they would forego their long sleeved t-shirt. Lane hummed to themselves until they heard the front door chime open with a seemingly sweaty Steven, “You ok, Steven?” Lane cocked their head seafoam hair shifting with the movement. 

“I’ll be ok in a sec, just gotta catch my breath, its kinda hot outside.” He said raggedly as he wiped his forehead, and within minutes of him being in the cool air he was back to his childlike self. “Got my usual in stock?” He asked as he walked up to the counter noticing the hash marks parading along Lane’s arms, “Are you ok Lane? What happened to your arms?” Steven took a breath trying his best to not stare at the blemishes in his friend’s skin.

Lane sighed softly pulling in a deep breath, “Bad coping mechanisms, they die hard.” They tried to roll their shoulders back not wanting to try to explain why they had this coping mechanism, not at work, not when other customers might be just a few steps away from entering the building.

Steven’s normally happy smiling face turns into a frown, “I can fix it!” And not even two seconds after saying those three words, he’s licking his hand and getting close to pressing the damp palm to the raised marks on the skin of Lane’s arm. Soon the spit covered palm is pressed flush to the slashes on Lane’s arm, and there is no difference aside from their arm needed to be washed before they could touch the donuts. 

“Steven, what are you doing?” They asked as they stood on tiptoe to look at Steven.

The dark haired boy sniffed, “Trying to fix the marks, but my spit didn’t work! You shouldn’t have these marks on your skin!” His deep brown eyes welled up with tears, “I wanted to help you feel better! But I messed up and my spit didn’t do its job!”

Lane looked at Steven more than confused, they took their hand and wiped away the tears that fell from Steven’s eyes, “Your spit didn’t do its job? What does that mean?”

“I have healing spit! I healed my friend Connie’s eyes once, and now she doesn’t have to wear glasses anymore! I thought I could heal your scars, but I guess it didn’t work.” He sighed defeatedly.

“You have healing spit? How?” Lane asked curiously. “What if your healing spit doesn’t work on scars that have already healed completely?”

Steven looked up at Lane, “I thought that it might work, I don’t like seeing my friends hurting.”

“Look Steven, how about we meet up later and i can tell you why i have scars, and why it’s a hard coping mechanism to break free of? But for now let’s get you your usual donut?” Lane said with a soft smile. 

“Meet at my house? After work,we can have pizza and talk?” He suggested with a small blush that crept up his cheeks, “I need to let the gems know too.”

Lane smiled, “Just tell me where it is and I'll be there after work, here’s your donut.” Lane added as they passed him a bag with a second donut, Lane’s personal favorite alongside his usual order.

Steven took the bag as he dried his eyes, “Thank you, and here.” He drew Lane a map to follow to get them to his place safely.

Lane smiled and folded up the map tucking it away into their pocket, “I’ll see you later tonight. Be safe alright?”

Steven nodded as he left, “You be safe too!”

Hours later Lane’s shift ended leaving Sadie to clean up while Lars did absolutely nothing. Lane pulled out the hand drawn map from their pocket, they followed the directions carefully heading towards the polar opposite direction of the boardwalk and their home. It took them a little over twenty minutes to finally reach Steven’s home, they looked up from the map Steven drew to see a giant woman, in the form of a statue and then a small what looked like a beach house. The genderfluid teenager drew in a breath as they climbed the wooden steps to the front door. Lane swallowed harshly as they knocked on the door. “Steven? I’m here, sorry I’m so late! Lars took forever to get to the store.”

Steven dashed down the stairs from his bedroom to the front door, opening it, “It’s ok! I’m glad you came!” The breathless boy smiled as he ushered Lane to the couch, “I got out the tissues and we can order pizza now!” he beamed as he grabbed his phone. 

Lane took a seat on the couch, “Just a pepperoni pizza would be ok.” They said feeling small inside of this new place. 

Steven nodded, “Sounds good to me! I’ll have it delivered!” He grinned before stepping away to call in the pizza order.

Lane twirled their thumbs together pulling their knees in close as nervousness pulled at their heart.”Your guardians know that I'm here right?” They asked nervously. 

Steven nodded as he hung up the phone, “Pizza will be here in a half an hour.” He noticed Lane’s posture, “Is everything alright Lane?” He asked as he sat next to them placing a delicate hand on their shoulder in hopes to help them relax. “It’s ok, I promise, the gems know and so does my dad.They told me it was alright. And now I’m telling you that everything is alright, you’re in a safe judgement free place.” He reassured the nervous teen.

Lane looked over to Steven, “Thank you, thank you for inviting me over to talk, for offering to be a friend, I don’t have a lot of them. So do you wanna do serious talk before or after the pizza gets here?” Lane asked taking a deep breath waiting for Steven’s answer. 

“We can start the serious talking while we wait for the pizza and keep going after we get our pizza, I want you to be able to talk freely, you deserve to be heard, especially by someone that wants to understand.” Steven said with confidence, “I want to hear you talk about yourself.” 

Lane felt tears prick at their lush green eyes,”If you’re sure, then I can tell you my story, up to this chapter.” Lane rubbed away the tears before inhaling a deep breath of ocean air to get their bearings, “I was born Freja to my parents, I was their little girl, I just never felt right as their little girl, don’t get me wrong I love my parents but by the time puberty started I felt utterly gross and disconnected from my body, I was eleven when I started wearing oversized clothing to hide what curves I was starting to gain.” Lane stopped at the word curves cringing at the idea of having them. “I started to lessen my caloric intake, I was still eating, just not a ‘normal’ amount, this bit hasn’t stopped either, but I still eat. By the time I was twelve I refused to look in the mirror after a shower because my body made me so uncomfortable.To be honest, my body still makes me feel uncomfortable, but not nearly as much since I’ve learned how to like my body, I don’t know how long it’ll take but I eventually want to love my body. Twelve was also the time I started to self harm, it’s an ongoing problem I have.” Lane paused as they heard a knock on the door, “I’ll continue after we get that pizza inside.” They smiled.

Steven’s heart melted with that small smile he hadn’t seen before. “I’ll be right back, get comfy, pizza is on its way to your tummy!” He cheered as he darted to the door to pay for the pizza and delivery. Steven came back in and settled the pizza box on the coffee table. “Pizza is served, you thirsty?” Steven asked as he walked to the refrigerator.

Lane nodded, “Water is fine, I don’t need anything overly sugary with pizza.”

Steven nodded as he grabbed two bottles of water for his guest and himself, “I’m ready when you are. No pressure.” He smiled handing Lane the bottle of water. 

Lane nodded as they cracked open the bottle of water taking a drink of the cold liquid. “I think I can keep going.” They said with a tint of fear to their voice. “So at the age of twelve I started on the path that is more or less self destructive. I have self harm marks that are roughly four years old, some are newer, but I’m going on a tangent, a couple of years ago, I found out what to call my gender identity, I found out that I was genderfluid, which is pretty neat, it took a lot of web searching to figure it out exactly.” They stopped talking to take a bite of the pizza while it was still hot. “And as I went through the internet for answers to the questions I had I learned about all kinds of amazing things that exist to help me feel more comfortable in my skin. I applied to The Big Donut the summer before I turned 15, I decided that I would save up parts of my checks for these amazing things that help me feel better in my skin. My third paycheck paid for my first binder. The first time I put it on I felt fantastic like I could take on the world. And as time went by and I saved money for other items to help me feel more confident, like as of this summer, I can go to the beach shirtless, because of an invention called transtape.” Lane beamed, “It’s amazing. But I’m still working on loving myself more. Some days are rougher than others and sometimes I slip back into old habits that die really hard. I can say that it’s been a whole month since my last slip up.” They said with a lip bite before devouring their slice of pizza.

Steven felt tears fall from his face, Lane had been through a lot, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know, when did you decide on the name Lane?” he asked scrubbing away the tears from his cheeks.

“I chose the name Lane around twelve it just sounded better and less like a goddess that might smite you if you said the wrong thing. And Lane is pretty self explanatory.” Lane grabbed a second slice of pizza. “I told you the whole thing.” Lane thought back double checking to see if they left out any details. “Oh yeah my dad kinda left after he rejected the idea of not having a daughter.” They sighed, “He left when I was fourteen. But that doesn’t matter to me anymore, I can live without a father.” 

Steven’s heart dropped, “He left just like that because you were different? That doesn’t sound much like a dad to me.”

Lane shrugged, “What’s done is done and it doesn’t affect me anymore. But my mom tries her best to support me.” Lane looked at Steven, “Oh hm, I told you my story up to this chapter of my life, I don’t think you know that I'm an artist either. I do a lot of art to help the LGBT+ community, I make buttons too!!” Lane said to try to bring the mood back up. 

“Like if you look at my backpack, I made all of the buttons on it!” Lane smiled grabbing their backpack to show Steven the buttons, “I could make you one! As a sign of friendship?” 

Steven’s pupils whet all excited and star-shaped, “I think that’d be really cool! What kind of button are you thinking of making?”

Lane tapped their chin, “A surprise. It’ll take a little while to get the design right, but when it’s done I can hand deliver it.” Lane smiled, “But it’s getting late and I should head home soon, I don’t think your guardians want a guest staying over night without warning. And I think my mom might be a little angry if I don’t come home.” Lane laughed. “See You tomorrow, Steven.” Lane stood a bit wobbly from just sitting and talking about their life story, “Wait before I head out, Let me give you my phone number, that way you don’t have to come to The Big Donut just to talk.” 

Steven nodded with a smile, “Til Next time Lane!” He hummed softly as he lead Lane out of the beach house. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first chapter of this story, I hope you enjoy it! And i would like to mention now that comments and kudos are appreciated greatly! Please stay tuned for updates!  
> -Sebas


End file.
